FAU rallies into Elite 8: 'We're where we're supposed to be'

NEW YORK — Before last Friday, Florida Atlantic didn't have an NCAA tournament win in the history of its men's basketball program.

Less than a week later, the Owls have three — and they're 40 minutes from the Final Four.

FAU came back in the second half to beat 4-seed Tennessee 62-55 in Thursday's Sweet 16 matchup and now will face 3-seed Kansas State in Saturday's Elite Eight.

The 9-seed Owls, wearing Cinderella's slipper? Not quite.

«We're where we're supposed to be,» guard Nicholas Boyd said. «We're going to keep moving, keep working. Can't count us out no more. We're here to stay and we're going to keep fighting no matter who we line up against, who we play.

»We're going to keep making statements."

Thursday's win certainly qualified. Very few teams all season have been able to withstand Tennessee's brand of physicality and defense, constantly dragging teams into a halfcourt slog. The Volunteers entered Thursday with the nation's best defense, the nation's best 3-point defense and a top-15 2-point defense.

Less than a week ago, Tennessee imposed its will on Duke, which had entered the NCAA tournament as one of the hottest teams in the country. And for the first 20 minutes, it looked like Thursday would be more of the same. FAU had nine first-half turnovers and shot 21.4% from 3.

Boyd realized early the Vols weren't just another defense.

«I threw a couple passes in the beginning of the game that got deflected,» he said. «Usually in our league those are layups, so we had to adjust.»

FAU did adapt and put forth one of the most efficient second-half performances anyone has produced against Tennessee's defense all season. The Owls had 40 points after halftime, just the ninth time this season a team scored 40 or more points